Plague of smelly millipedes infest £3,000-a-year beach huts

Thousands of wriggling critters are causing a stink – in more ways that one.

A plague of noxious millipedes are invading people’s beach houses in Bournemouth, leaving one owner shuddering at the thought of them.

Thelma, 72, stumps up £3,300 a year to the council for the hut she’s owned for nearly 30 years.

She is now fuming at officials who she claims are doing nothing to help her with her creepy crawly problem.

Despite the amount she pays for the seaside retreat, the infestation has put her off going to the shore.

The problem is so bad she is considering giving up the hut which she has had since 1996.

She believes the insects’ faeces is a potential health hazard and says the council have just told her to keep ‘sweeping the bugs away’.

The problem started in September last year and lasted until cooler weather arrived, but this year the insects arrived in early August.

Thelma said: ‘It makes my hair stand on end. Every time I go to my beach hut I have to take everything out and sweep up thousands of millipedes crawling all over the place.

‘They’re everywhere – in the cupboards, in the sink, on the table, I even found some in my towels.’

Thelma said she reported it to the council but ‘no one’ came to look.

She added: ‘I spoke to a ranger who told me the council would fill the holes to stop them from getting in. But they just told me to keep sweeping them up and won’t address the cause of the infestation.

‘I’m paying £275 a month for my beach hut and having to deal with this.. I can’t just go down there for a swim without having to deal with these bloody things everywhere.

‘I don’t like going now because I know I will have to spend 45 minutes clearing up before I can even sit down. I am thinking about giving up the hut because what pleasure do I get going down there anticipating the mess?’

The faeces from the insects create a ‘toxic and smelly’ mess, which Thelma said ‘poses a health hazard’.